Comparison study of imaging features of multiple sclerosis and neuromyelitis optica / 中华放射学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To compare the imaging characteristics of multiple sclerosis (MS) and neuromyelitis optica (NMO) for better diagnosis and differential diagnosis.Methods The brain and spinal MRI images of 60 MS and 48 NMO cases were retrospectively reviewed.The imaging characteristics including the predilection site,morphological features,enhancement manifestations were summarized.All data was analyzed by using t test and Chi square test with SPSS 13.0.Results (1) The three top predilection sites of brain in head MRI of MS patients were periventricular white matter (34 cases in 60),subcortical white matter (27 cases in 60),brain stem (23 cases in 60).MS lesions also were found in basal ganglia,cerebellum,corpus callosum and thalamus,as well as cortex (9 cases in 60).By contrast,brain lesions were observed in 59.4％ (19/32) of NMO patients,and the three top predilection sites of NMO by turns were brain stem (13 cases in 19),periventricular white matter (12 cases in 19),subcortical white matter (7 cases in 19).Furthermore,the lesions surrounding third ventricle (6 cases in 19) and the tegmentum of brain stem near peri-aqueduct (8 cases in 19) in NMO were not found in patients of MS.The involvement of brain stem and thalamus was more frequent in NMO than in MS (x2 =5.267,6.004,P ＜0.05,respectively).(2) The lesions of spinal cord in MS patients were typically oval,peripheral,and asymmetric,but in NMO patients they were longitudinally extensive and centrally located.The mean number of involved vertebral segments in NMO patients was significantly more than that in MS patients (7.3 vs 2.2,t =-9.288,P ＜ 0.01).Furthermore,the number of spinal cord lesions in MS patients was remarkably more than that in NMO (2.0 vs 1.3,t =4.565,P ＜0.01).The ratios of occurrence of spinal cord swelling and distension of NMO patients was 58.3％ (28/48),which was significantly higher than 21.9％ in MS (7/32,x2 =10.370,P ＜0.01).(3)The enhancement pattern in MS was circular (7 cases in 42),oval (6 cases in 42) and irregular (4 cases in 42),while in NMO was mainly sheet-shaped with mild enhancement (5/11).The lesions of spinal cord showed in MS mainly manifested as oval enhancement (16 cases in 26) and linear enhancement (8 cases in 26),while in NMO lesions manifested as strand or mild linear enhancement (26 cases in 35).Conclusions NMO has several distinct imaging characteristics,which are helpful for differentiation from MS.